More Articles

The passengers linger near the corner of 4th and Spring streets, sitting on dog-park benches or
lounging under a lone tree that shades them from the summer sun.

They lean on rolling suitcases and stand next to garbage bags, talking on cellphones or pacing
the sidewalk.

They’re all waiting for the same thing: a double-decker intercity bus that will pull up and take
them to Chicago or Chattanooga, Tenn., or some other city.

But they might not be doing it there much longer.

The Central Ohio Transit Authority has asked Megabus, which uses the COTA stop at that corner as
a passenger loading zone about five times a day, to find its own permanent spot. Somewhere
else.

“There have been some concerns and issues, like the traffic, and we have heard about some
disruptive behavior,” said COTA spokeswoman Lisa Knapp.

Megabus schedules some pickups at that corner at 5:30 p.m. — about the same time many Downtown
workers leave for home, using 4th Street as an artery out of the city center and to link with
highways.

Since Megabus started stopping in the right lane of 4th in March, traffic has slowed behind the
bus, leaving motorists to try to merge back with the congested center lanes.

Megabus has had several temporary stops in Columbus since 2007, when it changed to a taller bus
and couldn’t use a COTA terminal, Sean Hughes, the company’s associate director of corporate
affairs, wrote in an email.

COTA’s stops are public right-of-way, Knapp said, so the agency doesn’t collect any money from
Megabus, and it doesn’t have a contract with the company.

Because the relationship is informal, she said it’s hard to find details about its history.

Before it stopped at the southeast corner of 4th and Spring, Megabus used the westbound lanes of
Nationwide Boulevard at High Street, Knapp said.

“There also were some concerns over there, which is why I understand they then found the
location that they’re at currently,” she said.

Some Downtown residents have complained about trash on the ground around the stop and passengers
standing around without a designated waiting space, said Lisa Defendiefer, deputy director of
operations for the Capital Crossroads special-improvement district.

Defendiefer said she planned to ask Megabus to consider adding benches and garbage cans at the
stop.

The company is working with the city to find a new stop, Hughes wrote.

But the city’s permit office hasn’t received any recent calls from Megabus, said Rick Tilton,
assistant director in the Department of Public Service.